Meeting of the Parliament 25 March 2014
I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate, which is primarily about road safety and reducing the number of injuries and fatalities on roads across Scotland. We might argue this afternoon about how we should do that, but one thing that we will not disagree on is the devastating impact that it can have on a person’s life if they are injured in a car accident or if they have caused injury or even loss of life in an accident. Neither will we disagree on the impact on the lives of the friends and families of people who have died in car crashes, the impact on emergency service staff of the mental trauma of dealing with such accidents or the financial impact on the emergency services.
Young people who are aged 17 to 25 make up 23 per cent of the drivers who are involved in injury road accidents despite making up only 10 per cent of those who hold a licence, as the minister highlighted. Young drivers drive only around 5 per cent of the road miles that are driven but are involved in 22 per cent of all crashes. Therefore, it is right that we have a particular focus on this area. Road traffic accidents remain the number 1 threat to young people’s safety, and we will support the Government’s motion tonight.
The Labour Party across the UK has been calling for the Government to produce the green paper on young driver safety and has called for the inclusion of a graduated licence scheme in the paper for discussion and consultation. Dave Stewart MSP was awarded the parliamentarian of the year award by the road safety campaign group Brake for his campaign on a graduated driver licensing scheme. We recognise the contribution that has been made, over the past 10 years, to research by Dr Sarah Jones of Cardiff University on the potential impact of a GDL scheme in Scotland. I take on board the minister’s point that the research has been updated to reflect a new—but still substantial—figure for the number of lives that could be saved each year.
Graduated driver licensing has a proven evidence base and requires serious consideration. The licensing system would enable young and novice drivers to build up ability and experience through a structured and phased approach. Graduated driver licensing exists in various forms in many countries, including the UK, but its exact components differ. Common elements of graduated driver licensing include a minimum learning period, minimum required amounts of on-road supervised practice and a minimum age at which novice drivers can graduate to the intermediate stage. The intermediate stage then places additional restrictions on young and novice drivers such as restrictions on sole or night-time driving for all novice drivers and restrictions on carrying passengers. Other components include a lower alcohol limit and a ban on hands-free mobile phone use while driving.
Those are all worthy suggestions that should be investigated further to see whether they can be implemented in such a way that they reduce the number of road accidents as well as the insurance premiums of young drivers who struggle to pay the costs of insurance because of the statistics that show that young drivers are more likely to be involved in accidents. Crucially, we must also know whether those measure would impact on a young person’s ability to travel for work.
This is not just about the UK Government. The Scottish Government also needs to produce proposals on road safety, particularly for young drivers. In 2011, Transport Scotland made a number of recommendations to improve safety and limit the risk of traffic-related collisions and accidents involving young drivers. It recommended:
“Continue to encourage a life-long approach to learning in all schools, as part of the Curriculum for Excellence through the provision of free resources and support, to help ensure that all pupils are taught about road safety issues as pedestrians and cyclists, as car passengers, and as future drivers.”
I wonder how many local authorities, schools and pupils have been able to benefit from those free resources.